WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is no more sugarcoating it.

Dakota Joshua’s second tour as an asset of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been anything but successful.

The glass-half-full news here is that — on the heels of the power forward’s first and long-anticipated healthy scratch — no one is pretending otherwise.

Head coach Craig Berube waited 22 games before benching the bottom-six checker whom GM Brad Treliving scooped up this summer from the Canucks.

At first blush, the acquisition felt like a low-cost, low-risk flyer.

An 18-goal, 32-point, hard-checking, defensively responsible forechecker? A fan favourite of any Vancouverite who tuned in for the 2024 playoffs? For the low, low price of a 2028 fourth-rounder?

Bring him on.

Six weeks into the player’s proposed redemption campaign, howeve

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